About European Football Championship
The European Football Championship, also known as the European Championship, European Cup, or European Cup of Nations, is the highest level of national football tournament participated by member states of UEFA. The original purpose of the tournament was to fill the gap of four years between two FIFA World Cups, thus providing more opportunities for European countries to compete.
Competition History
The first edition was held in 1960, then called the European Nations Cup, and has been held every four years since then. In 1968, it was renamed as the current European Football Championship (French: Champion nat d'Europe de football). All UEFA member states who wanted to participate in the final round of the European Football Championship, except for the host country, had to participate in the preliminary rounds. Through the preliminary rounds, the best performing team could advance to the final round. At the beginning, there were only 4 teams participating in the competition, until the number of participating teams increased to 8 in 1980. At the same time, the final round of the competition was expanded from only the knockout stage to the group stage. In 1996, it increased to 16 teams. At that time, the European Football Championship was divided into 4 groups of 16 teams, with 4 teams in each group. Each group played a round robin format, and the two teams with the best results in each group advanced to the quarterfinals. The winner of both the quarterfinals and semi-finals is determined by a one game pass, until the championship team is determined in the final. However, the defending champion will not automatically receive a spot in the next UEFA European Football Championship finals. On September 26, 2008, UEFA announced that starting from 2016, the number of participating teams in the final stage of the UEFA European Football Championship would be expanded to 24 teams. At present, the European Football Championship is divided into 6 groups of 24 teams, with 4 teams in each group. The top two teams in each group plus four best third place teams will advance to the round of 16, while the rest will remain largely unchanged.
Event Influence
Due to the scale and quality of the European Football Championship being second only to the FIFA World Cup, it is known as the World Cup without Brazil and Argentina. And the dramatic results that have appeared multiple times in previous years are also the reason why it is widely loved. Although its history is much shorter than the World Cup and its hosting density is lower than most other international competitions, the European Football Championship is the only international tournament where all different methods of winning have appeared after the final stage, including rematches, penalty shootouts, golden goals, silver goals, throws, and all other methods of winning that have been used by FIFA, and often appear in the final. This fully demonstrates the twists and turns and fascinating aspects of the European Football Championship. As of now, Spain has become the first and only team to successfully defend their European Football Championship title."
The 17th European Championship has been won by ten national teams: Spain won four championships, Germany won three championships, Italy and France won two championships, and the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Greece, and Portugal each won one championship. So far, Spain is the only team to have won consecutive championships, having won in 2008 and 2012 respectively.
Recent Winner
The most recent tournament was held in Germany in 2024, where the Spain
defeated the England 2-1 in the final held at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, winning their fourth European championship on record.
